Oommen Chandy or 'Kunjoonju' was born to K.O. Chandy and Baby Chandy in a MalayaliSyrian Christian family at Kumarakom, Kottayam district, Kerala. Oommen is another Nasrani name variant for the name Thomas, and Chandy means Alexander.

Chandy ventured into the political arena as an activist of Kerala Students Union (KSU), the student wing of the party. He was the unit president of KSU at St George High School, Puthupally, and went on to become the State President of the organization. Chandy completed his college education from CMS College, Kottayam, SB College, Changanassery. Later, he took a bachelors degree in law (LLB) from Government Law College, Ernakulam. He is also a trade unionist and heads several INTUC affiliated outfits.

Chandy started his political career through the Kerala Students Union (KSU), which he served as president from 1967 to 1969. He was elected as the president of the State Youth Congress in 1970. He is the 21st chief minister of Kerala at present.

He has represented the Puthuppally Constituency for decades, having been elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly in 1970, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011. During his legislative career he had also served as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee during 1996–98.

Chandy sworn as a minister in Kerala for four times. He was the Minister for Labour from 11.04.1977 to 25.04.1977 in the first K. Karunakaran Ministry and continued holding the same portfolio in the succeeding first A.K. Antony Ministry till 27.10.1978. He was in the charge of Home portfolio in the second K. Karunakaran Ministry from 28.12.1981 to 17.03.1982. Again, he was sworn in as a minister in the fourth K.Karunakaran Ministry on July 2, 1991. He was in charge of Finance Portfolio and resigned from the cabinet on 22.06.1994 due to difference with the Chief Minister.

The results of the parliamentary elections in May 2004 saw the Indian National Congress not winning a single seat in Kerala. The sitting Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, was forced to resign and accept responsibility for the poor results. On August 30, 2004, Oommen was elected the Congress Legislature Party leader at the end of a meeting by AICC observers and clearance by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. In what may be seen as a reflection of his work as Chief Minister, the Congress-led alliance was defeated, but managed to retain 40 out of 140 seats in the assembly and boost its vote-share by nearly 10% after the general election rout. He resigned as Chief Minister on May 12, 2006 following the defeat of his party in 2006 Assembly Elections.

Oommen Chandy was the leader of opposition in the twelfth Kerala Legislative Assembly. Under his leadership UDF marked victories in Lok Sabha Election 2009 gaining 16 out of 20 parliament constituencies in Kerala. and Local Body Election 2010. In the history of Kerala politics it's the first time that the UDF got an upper hand in local body elections.

After winning the closely contested 2011 assembly election, Congress legislative party unanimously elected Oommen Chandy as its leader. At the Congress Legislature Party meeting, Mr. Chandy's name was proposed by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala and seconded by Aryadan Mohammed. The election process was formally launched after Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Mohsina Kidwai and AICC general secretary Madhusoodan Mistry, who is in charge of Kerala, held a one-to-one meeting in their capacity as observers with the 38 elected MLAs.

UDF (United Democratic Front) led by Oommen Chandy secured a slender margin in assembly election which held on April 13, 2011. UDF candidates won in 72 seats against 68 seats of LDF (Left Democratic Front). He took the oath on May 18, 2011 with six other ministers of his cabinet. Later thirteen other ministers were also inducted into his cabinet. He gave up Vigilance Portfolio in early August 2011, after a fresh probe was ordered on the Palm Oil case (which happened when he was Finance Minister in 1992).

Though UDF came to power with a wafer thin majority, his 100 days programmes announced propelled the state fast forward. 107 programmes were announced as part of the 100 days programme of the Government. Out of this the government could accomplished a whopping figure of 101 leaving just 6 of the programmes unfinished. This really gave a boost to the governance. The policies adopted by Oommen Chandy helped to bridge the gap between people and officials.

UNDP appreciated Oommen Chandy, for the range of innovative practices in democratic governance, initiated by the Government of Kerala in strengthening people's access and participation in human development and governance. They were impressed by the innovative approach to ensure transparency and accountability in Governance, particularly the to web-stream the entire functioning of CM’s office. The Mass Contact Programme, in many ways, is the first of its kind to ensure the right to direct access to leaders and senior civil servants of the government.[3]

The UDF Government had increased the aid from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. As many as 176 victims who had been given Rs 50,000 earlier were given an additional Rs 50,000 on Monday. The remaining families in the list of 486 victims were distributed Rs 1 lakh each.[5]

In an attempt to enforce transparency 24x7 live webcast streaming of Chief ministers office and meeting chamber started on July 1, 2011. This is streamed on the official website of the Chief Minister of Kerala.[6]

A package was introduced for the teacher's of aided school's of Kerala. It helped teachers who lost their job in schools that had no or less number of students. The package transferred jobless teachers into other schools.The procedures of teachers bank were done online. The teacher's bank came effective from the academic year 2011–12.

The allegation of Palmolein Import Scam occurred during the year 1991–92 in the Kerala state when K. Karunakaran was the chief minister of the state and the ruling party was United Democratic Front. During this time Oommen Chandy was the Finance Minister[7] of the state and was responsible for financial accounts of the state of Kerala. This scam allegedly caused a loss of Rs 2.32 crore to the state. The case once closed after the death of K. Karunakaran in December 2010 was reopened in March 2011[8] during the election period of 2011. However this did not affect the election results to a great extent.

The court stated that Oommen Chandy had approved of the import of palmolein through "Power and Energy Ltd" by paying 15% service charge and it was evident from his signature in the note.[9] However the court has not been able to show any direct involvement of Oommen Chandy in the scam . Aiding to the investigation of the case in 2011, when the case was reopen, Oommen Chandy, the then Chief Minister had agreed to step down from the Office of Chief Minister of Kerala in 2011, and face the case "legally and morally". But on the advice on Congress core committee, Oommen Chandy continues to stay incumbent. To provide more trust and transparency to the investigation, Oommen Chandy gave up the portfolio of Vigilance and Anti Corruption.[10]

The vigilance court asked the vigilance and anti-corruption bureau to submit its investigation report of the palmolein case by November 10, 2011. The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) gave a clean chit to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on January 7, 2012. The Vigilance team submitted its further probe report in the palmolein import case, saying there was no evidence to arraign Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as an accused.

The facts, evidences and circumstances of the case in the probe showed Oommen Chandy had not committed any illegal acts or omissions as the then finance minister, the report said.

The VACB report said Oommen Chandy was not part of the conspiracy which caused the state exchequer a loss of Rs 2.32 crore. He had not acted in a manner to ensure undue monetary advantage for the private firm involved in the import.[10]

Oommen Chandy received the 2013 United Nations Public Service Award[11][12][13] from the Asia-Pacific region, for the category "Preventing and Combating Corruption in the Public Service." The award was presented on June 27, 2013, in Manama, Bahrain, by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Wu Hongbo. The award was based on the theme "Transformative e-Government and Innovation: Creating a Better Future for All."

He again became the centre of attention with the issues regarding the the marital problems of Ganesh Kumar who was a Forest minister in Chandy's cabinet. Opposition parties condemned the callous nature of Oommen Chandy and demanded his resignation who refused to accept a letter of complaint from Dr Yamini Thankachy whose husband Mr Ganesh Kumar had assaulted her brutally under the circumstances of an extramarital affair that Mr Ganesh Kumar was alleged to have.[14] It was widely believed that the refusal of Mr Oommen Chandy to accept a letter of complaint from Dr Yamini was to diffuse the crisis involving a member in his cabinet and further avoid any embarrassment for his government who had just a razor thin majority in the legislative assembly. Accepting a letter of complaint would mean that further actions would be mandated from the chief minister such as ordering a criminal investigation under the Indian penal code. It was strongly believed by his rivals that Mr Oommen Chandy had violated the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 by not taking up this matter to law enforcement authorities in the very first encounter that Dr Yamini had with Mr Oommen Chandy, but instead Mr Oommen Chandy tried to diffuse it by asking more time to mediate this matter by negotiation, as reported by Dr Yamini Thankachi.[15]

2013 Kerala solar panel scam involved a fraudulent solar energy company, Team Solar, in Kerala, which used two women to create political contacts with links even to the Chief Minister's office, duped several influential people to the tune of 70 million Rupees by offering to install solar power units for them, or by offering to make them business partners and receiving advance payments for the same.[16]

Allegations against the Chief Minister Oommen Chandy have been raised, due to phone calls made by his personal staff to one of the main accused Saritha Nair[17] and forged letters which were used by the fraudsters to defraud customers. The issue snowballed when Sridharan Nair, a quarry owner, claimed that he had met the Chief Minister, at his office, along with Saritha Nair, during which the Chief Minister encouraged investments in renewable energy. The Chief Minister refuted these claims on the floor of the Assembly, stating that the only time he met Sridharan Nair was as a representative of Quarry owners. The allegations are being used by the opposition LDF as a reason to stall the proceedings of the Kerala Legislative Assembly and demand the resignation of the Kerala Chief Minister[18] Tenny Jopan, personal secretary of the CM was relieved from his duties and later arrested by the police for his alleged involvement in the scam[19]

On 12 August 2013, the CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front (LDF) had conducted an indefinite siege on the state secretariat demanding chief minister's regignation and a judicial investigation of his office's alleged link in the solar scam. The siege was addressed by Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) chief H. D. Deve Gowda and CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat. The activists of the LDF, who blocked three entry and exit gates of the Kerala secretariat and claimed that the fourth will be blocked later in that day.[20] The siege ended following the United Democratic Front (UDF) government’s decision to order a judicial inquiry into the scandal.[21]